Recipe Feature: Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats from Around The World!

If you are vegan you likely know her. If you are gluten-free and vegan you definetly know her! If you are vegan, gluten-free and crazy-cool, you might just be good friends with her… Allyson Kramer. 😉 (side note: I joke with Allyson that before I knew her, I thought she was super cool, and now that I do know her, yep, she’s cool!)

Allyson Kramer of Manifest Vegan is a multi-talented recipe developer, photographer, cookbook author, and blogger. She creates inventive and inspired gluten-free recipes that just happen to be vegan. Or perhaps that should be vegan recipes that just happen to be gluten-free. However we choose to define or phrase her work, one thing cannot be argued: You will not “miss”anything in Allyson’s recipes. If eating gluten-free, you won’t feel like you are deprived of foods you used to love. And the same applies to the exclusion of animal products. Allyson masterfully creates gluten-free, plant-based recipes to ensure that you are loving your meals and feel fully satisfied.

Allyson’s first book was named as one of the Top 5 cookbooks of 2012 by Vegetarian Times Magazine. In her second book, Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats from Around The World, Allyson takes her skills a step further, exploring international cuisines. I had the privilege of providing a quote for this book, and I will repeat a portion of that here:

Allyson makes vegan and gluten-free dreams come true, delivering exotic and inspired dishes that will take you on a global culinary journey.

Yes. This book is a guided food tour through parts of the world we may never have the pleasure of visiting – Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and more. Allyson’s “Global Ingredients Guide” will help you shop for any new, exotic ingredients. Plus, because Allyson is a trained artist and talented food photographer, you get to “eat with your eyes first”. Food photos are cover to cover!

Many of you follow a whole-foods diet and may be wondering if this cookbook uses any processed foods. It uses some, but in small proportion to the amount of vegetables, beans, grains, fruits, nuts and seeds also used. Moreover, there is room for some convenience products and more indulgent dishes when the majority of our diets are abundant in whole plant foods.

Allyson was so generous, she allowed me to choose ANY recipe from her new cookbook to share with you. I kept coming back to this pudding. It is comfort-food with an exotic twist! Something we can enjoy as a dessert, or even as a sweeter breakfast porridge for your family.

This easy and oh-so-peanutty dessert is a great way to use up any extra basmati rice you may have in your fridge. This porridge is a favorite for Central Africans, where they prepare it similarly using rice, peanut butter, and sugar.

2 cups (316 g) cooked jasmine rice, cold

1/4 cup (60 ml) coconut milk

1/4 cup (80 ml) agave or brown rice syrup

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup (130 g) creamy natural peanut butter

Additional agave for drizzling

1 cup (145 g) crushed peanuts

Cinnamon for topping

Yield: 4 servings

In small saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the rice, coconut milk, agave, sea salt, and peanut butter and heat until warm and creamy. Garnish with a drizzle of agave or brown rice syrup and top with crushed peanuts and cinnamon.

Recipe Note: This dessert tastes exceptionally great with add-ins! Try stirring in a few semisweet chocolate chips, small bits of Medjool dates, and a little maple syrup for a super-indulgent treat!

What ethnic dish would you love to see veganized and made gluten-free? (It might just be in this book!)

I just made this and it’s so delicious I had to leave a comment. This is total comfort food. This was eaten on a cold autumnal late afternoon, curled up on my sofa after a long, intensive 34 miles bike ride (I’m trying to lose weight). My body was CRAVING energy. It was bliss.

On my third helping I added a a bit of virgin coconut oil and it was YUM. So much for my weight loss lol!

Thank you so much for sharing the recipe…I can see why you chose it! This book must be fabulous. 🙂
I’d love to see a vegan version of börek. My aunt used to make it when I was a kid…superlight airy flaky little pockets filled with spicy savory stuff. Kind of like baklava but with protein/grain goodness inside instead of sweetness. Actually vegan baklava would be superyumful too! Now I’m all hungry for baked flaky foods! 🙂

This was so delicious! I made a few adaptions to the recipe, using raw honey instead of agave and coconut butter instead of peanut butter and sprinkled some coconut flakes on top. Extremely good! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂

Wow! That rice pudding looks so rich, yummy and healthy. Coconut is my favourite and I love that there is no sugar in this recipe. Agave, maple, brown rice etc syrups are so much healthier and they make great desserts. Thanks for sharing the recipe, Dreena. Next on my to do list. This past months I have been trying so many different recipes especially vegan desserts. Today I made most scrumptious vegan caramel slices.